Do UK Primary School Children Need a Personal Trainer?

With around 50% of parents who opt to drive their primary school aged child/children living less than 1 mile away from their school, the future health and fitness of this generation is a massive and growing concern. Throw in numerous studies that suggest thousands of primary school pupils do not possess sufficient fitness to jump, run and throw adequately. In particular running tests that determine cardiovascular endurance seem to produce the lowest results.

So do primary school children require the services of a Personal Trainer? Our personal trainers in London report they are seeing an increasing demand from parents to hire their services to work with their sons and daughters. This trend is also on the rise outside of London particularly if both parents are working full time. With limited time, the opportunity to participate with their child/children in exercise seems either impractical or difficult to schedule on a regular and an ongoing basis. What is clear, well informed and well intentioned parents recognise their child/children spend far less than the 60 minute a day guidelines of being physically active and are keen to do something about it. Fulfilling the 60 minute a day guideline is unfortunately not on the radar of many schools. We often receive feedback from our trainers that the inevitable pressure on schools aiming to achieve better and better academic results is the reason why games, sports and physical education classes take a back seat.

Armed with this information, the current and future business opportunity to assist this demographic as qualified personal trainers looks very attractive indeed. After all, we are considering the health of our future working population. With a growing number of leading companies implementing medicals on new and existing staff the basic human need of looking after self awareness is on the rise. Let’s continue raising the awareness and build further momentum.

Course Director
Anita is a Director at the Academy of Fitness Professionals and joined the board in 2013. With a proven background in blue chip corporate management, training and development including Lloyds Banking Group, Prudential and Renault-Nissan she is committed to offering the very best student experience both in terms of education and value. Specialist qualifications spanning the past 25 years include; training and development, business management and finance and diet and nutrition.